The Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday that he was “attentive” to ensuring that “as many jobs as possible are preserved” in the takeover offers for Casino stores and “vigilant over employment in the logistics centers” of the group and at the headquarters in Saint-Étienne. Asked about the situation of the group in great financial difficulty, he declared: “we will ensure that the headquarters is maintained in Saint-Étienne”, during the question session to the government. Employees are very worried about a possible significant “social breakdown” within the group employing 50,000 people in France and originating from the Loire.
“I am alongside the employees, I received this morning the inter-union” including the five organizations representing the group’s employees (FO, CGT, CFDT, UNSA, CFE-CGC), “I will continue to receive it, and I I am here to defend the interests of employees and guarantee respect for public and economic order,” declared the Minister of the Economy. “Now we must guarantee the future of the group and ensure that with the rest of French mass distribution, all employees can find a solution,” he declared in response to a question from the senator of the Loire Pierre-Jean Rochette.
The group’s inter-union launched a new call to demonstrate on Sunday morning in Saint-Étienne “in the face of the threat of job losses”. At the end of her meeting with Bercy on Wednesday, she explained that she was “firmly opposed to the dismantling of the group through the disappearance of the Casino brand”. Casino signed an agreement in July providing for the restructuring of an unsustainable debt, with a change in shareholding with, by March-April 2024, a takeover by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, the Frenchman Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière and the British Attestor fund.
But in the meantime, commercial performances have not improved much and the group, still led for a few months by Jean-Charles Naouri, had to lower its financial ambitions several times, before saying it was ready to sell stores if competitors were interested. Unions fear serious consequences for employment, particularly in headquarters and logistics networks. In addition, for employees who have to change brands, the uncertainty is great because working conditions can be very different from one large retail company to another.
